Friday, 21 January 2011

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

During the early to mid nineties there were two names that if credited on the back of a 12" single would guarantee that I bought it. The first which will be of no surprise to anyone was Andrew Weatherall and the other was an ex scooterboy, dj and club runner from Northern Ireland by the name of David Holmes.

During the nineties Holmes was quite a prolific remixer putting in exceptional mixes for the likes of everybody from Saint Etienne to that dreaded Irish band, in fact that is the only thing I have against him, that unlike Mr Weatherall he did try to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear for those band wagon jumpers and not only on one occasion. However as soon as I put on Holmes' remix of Smokebelch II I could forgive him capital offences let alone such misguided misdemeanours.

Holmes did not just try his hand at remixing but also released records in his own right and also in collaboration with the likes of Stuart McMillan, Kriss Needs and others during this period producing some of the best progressive house tracks of the time such as DeNiro, The Hawaiian Death Stomp and Minus 61 in Detroit to name but 3.

At the turn of the century Holmes focused his efforts on movie scores and now has a pretty successful career in this field, with the likes of Ocean's Eleven and Out of Sight to his credit.

I like Holmes, so much of his stuff is good and his Essential Mixes are essential. His solo albums can be a bit hit and miss and I can't help but feel some of the film stuff lacks something. Good post. Hope DVD appreciates the nice lady.